My chosen frozen: Achievement unlocked

This past week something happened to me. I became a runner again. And there wasn't a feeling of ruefulness or despondency over any lost speed or measurement against my abilities "before," I just became, in a moment of emergence, the runner I'd hoped to encounter through the course of this adventure.

It is hard to explain this shift, this feeling of capability which has eluded me these past five years. This simple link to a natural movement. But it is a nutrient that keeps me healthy, an element that allows me to breathe, and a balm that has always healed what is wounded. And somewhere, whether at the 25K Endurathon, or running the hills last Tuesday or just after my long run last Saturday, I regained a freedom long locked away.

So there you have it, I've unexpectedly achieved my personal goal and rediscovered my panacea. Now, it's all icing and gravy.

BOOM.

[It comes none too soon, by the way, as Virginia beckons this weekend for race #10, the ICY 8-Hour Trail Race at Lake Anna, a reservoir in Spotsylvania County (originally a gold mine, then a cooling pond for a nuclear plant, then transformed into a state park).]

Photo from the 2013 ICY-8 when temps hovered in the 20s....
(image: AsphaltImpaired)